JOURNAL OF MODERN BIOTECHNOLOGY, VOL. 1, NO. 1, pp 37–44, September 2012 Copyright © 2012, by Madras Institute of Biotechnology. All Right Reserved. www.thebiotech.org 37 JOURNAL OF MODERN BIOTECHNOLOGY VOLUME 1· NUMBER 1· SEPTEMBER 2012 Research Article BIOENCAPSULATION OF ARTEMIA NAUPLII WITH HERBAL EXTRACT FOR PROMOTING GROWTH OF FISH FRY POECILIA SPHENOPS VAL. Chinnasamy Arulvasu * , Somasundaram Shobana, Hyder Ali Aseena Banu, Devakumar Chandhirasekar, Durai Prabhu Department of Zoology, University of Madras, Guindy Campus, Chennai 600 025, Tamil Nadu, India. *Corresponding Author e-mail: carulvasu@gmail.com Received: 13 August 2012; Revised: 22 August 2012; Accepted: 28 August 2012 Abstract The present investigation aimed to evaluate the bioencapsulation of Artemia nauplii with Vitex negundo leaf extract for promoting growth and survival of Poecilia sphenops fish fry was carried out. Artemia cyst were collected from Kelambakkam saltpan and cultured in the laboratory. Cyst processing and hatching were made in the laboratory. The assessment of cytotoxic bioassay of leaf extracts of V. negundo (aqueous, methanol, ethanol) were used Artemia nauplii. The LC 50 value of Artemia nauplii was observed in 2.5, 1.0 and 1.0 mg/ml of aqueous, methanol and ethanol extracts respectively. After optimization, Artemia nauplii were enriched with 6 and 12 hrs were fed to fish fry. The experimental fish fry were assessed for their survival, specific growth rate (SGR) and mortality compared with the control. The Maximum SGR was observed in experiment I (6 h enriched Artemia) 2.70% and the minimum of 1.13% in Control. The maximum survival rate was observed in Experiment I value of 95.83% (6 h) Artemia nauplii enriched with aqueous leaf extract and the minimum of 89.58% observed in control. The maximum mortality rate was observed in control value of 10.41% (6 h) Artemia nauplii unenriched with aqueous leaf extract and the minimum mortality rate was observed in experimental I (4.16%) enriched Artemia nauplii. The above result clearly indicated that V. negundo leaf extract could be used as nutritional and enriches feed for Artemia nauplii. Keywords: Artemia, Cytotoxicity, Enrichment, Survival, Bioencapsulation ________________________________________________________________________________________________ INTRODUCTION The ornamental fish sector is a widespread and global component of international trade, fisheries, aquaculture and socio-economic development. Since 1985, the international trade in exports of ornamentals, which usually takes place in the majority of developing countries, followed an increasing trend with an average growth rate of approximately 14% per year. Successful rearing of larval stages of aquatic organisms is a challenge for aquarium hobbyists, an aim and a necessity for the success of the aquaculturist. All these specialists will agree that the primary problem in any type of larval rearing is that of food. Ideally, one would prefer to feed larvae their natural diet, which is characterized by a wide diversity of nutritious live organisms. Live feed is an essential food source for the fry of cultured species, especially those without a fully developed digestive system. In the freshwater ornamental fish culture, Artemia nauplii are used as the live feed. Two major concerns of aquaculturists are: (i) providing organisms appropriate to the size of the feed to the first feeding stage and (ii) supplying adequate number of feed organisms to ensure higher survival and faster growth (Arulvasu and Munuswamy, 2009). The continuous, nonselective feeding behavior of on-grown Artemia also makes the organism an ideal booster diet, as its nutritional quality could be tailored to suit the fish requirements through bioencapsulation. Bioencapsulation is defined as the process by which live food organisms are enriched with specific nutrients or